January 7, 2015 – Argonne National Laboratory in the States announced it will work with three nuclear products and services companies on projects that “could unlock the potential of advanced nuclear reactor designs, helping create a new generation of safer, more efficient reactors”.

The three partners are Areva Federal Services (Aiken, S.C.), GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (Wilmington, N.C.) and Westinghouse Electric Co. (Monroeville, Pa.).

“The fact that Argonne is partnering with private industry on three of the five projects selected for funding by DoE [U.S. Department of Energy] says volumes about the quality of work being performed at the lab,” said Mark T. Peters, associate laboratory director for Energy and Global Security.

Areva is partnering with TerraPower Company, Argonne and Texas A&M University to conduct thermal hydraulic modelling and simulations, and an experimental investigation for liquid metal-cooled fast-reactor fuel assemblies. GE Hitachi is partnering with Argonne to develop an updated safety assessment of the company’s PRISM sodium-cooled fast reactor. Westinghouse, meantime, is partnering with Argonne and the University of Pittsburgh to develop thermo-acoustic sensors for sodium-cooled fast reactors.

— With files from Greg Cunningham